MULTIPLE ALLIES
Heroes on great epic journeys may acquire whole ship-loads of Allies, building up a team of adventurers, each with his or her different skill. Odysseus has his shipmates and Jason has his Argonauts. In the British Isles, King Arthur, beginning with his foster-brother Sir Kay, attracts a small army of Allies, the Knights of the Round Table. In France, Charlemagne gathers a similar band of Ally knights from all the nations of his empire who become known as his Paladins. Dorothy picks up a series of Allies on her quest, starting with her animal Ally Toto.
GREAT ALLIES IN LITERATURE
Some great stories have been woven from the relationship between a hero and an Ally. Don Quixote and his reluctant squire Sancho Panza form one such pair, representing two extremes of society and very different ways of viewing the world. Shakespeare often employs Allies like Lear's Fool or Prince Hal's riotous companion Falstaff to explore his heroes more deeply, providing the heroes with comic foils or challenging them to look more deeply into their own souls. Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are another example, where the amazing intellect of Holmes is unfolded for the reader through the admiring eyes of his Ally, Watson, narrator of the tales.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL WORLD
Dr. Watson illustrates a useful function for Allies of introducing us to an unfamiliar world. Like Watson, they can ask the questions we would be asking. When the hero is tight-lipped or where it would be awkward and unrealistic for him or her to explain things that are second nature to the hero but very exotic to us, an Ally can do the work of explaining everything as needed. The Ally is sometimes an "audience character," someone who sees the Special World of the story with fresh eyes as we would do if we were there.
Novelist Patrick O'Brian employed this device in his long series of books about the British Navy in the Napoleonic Wars. His hero, Jack Aubrey, is similar to heroes of other seafaring books like C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower, but O'Brian's books are distinguished by the introduction of a strong, life-long Ally for the dashing sea captain, in the character of Stephen Maturin, a doctor, naturalist, and secret agent who remains a stranger to the ways of the sea despite decades of sailing with his friend. O'Brian provides much comedy with Stephens lame attempts to understand the jargon of the sailor, but also gives a good reason for the exasperated Jack to explain details of battle and sailing that we, the readers, want to know about.
WESTERN ALLIES: SIDEKICKS
In the rich tradition of Hollywood Western movie serials and TV shows, the Ally is called a "sidekick," a term from early nineteenth-century pickpocket's slang for a side pants pocket. In other words, a sidekick is someone you keep as close to you as your side pocket. Every TV Western hero had to have his Ally, from the Lone Ranger's "faithful Indian companion" Tonto to Wild Bill Hickock's "comical sidekick" Jingles, played by character actor Andy Devine, who also filled the Ally's role in many Western movies going back to Stagecoach. The Cisco Kid had his comic foil Pancho, Zorro had his silent but very useful accomplice Bernardo. Walter Brennan played a gallery of sidekicks, notably supporting John Wayne in Red River. There he goes beyond the usual roles of Ally as provider of comic relief and someone for the hero to talk to. He also serves as a conscience, muttering every time John Wayne's character makes a moral error and rejoicing when Wayne's surrogate son finally stands up to him.
The relationship with the Ally can be quite complex, sometimes becoming dramatic material in its own right. A vast body of story has been written and filmed about self-righteous Western lawman Wyatt Earp and his unruly, alcoholic, sickly, but very dangerous Ally, Doc Holliday. In some versions of the tale, like director John Sturges' thundering Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the two men are nearly equally matched, and while joining together to fight the external threat of the Clanton gang, they are also two horns of a great debate in American culture, between the rigid moral universe of the Puritans, represented by law-abiding Wyatt Earp, and the wilder rebel side represented by Holliday, a gambler from the old South.
NON-HUMAN ALLIES
Allies need not be human. In some religions of the world, each person is assigned a spirit protector, a lifelong sidekick or Ally. This may be an angel, the guardian angel who is supposed to look out for the person and keep them on the right path, or a minor deity of some kind. The Egyptians taught that Khnemu, the ram-headed builder god, fashioned each person out of clay on his potter's wheel and at the same time made a "ka" or spirit protector in the exact same shape. The ka accompanied each person throughout life and on into the afterlife as long as the person's body was preserved. Its job was to encourage the person to lead a good and useful life.
The Romans also believed that every man had a guardian spirit or Ally, his "genius," and that every woman had a "juno." Originally these were ghosts of the family's distinguished ancestors, but later came to be personal guardian deities. Each person made offerings to the genius or juno on his or her birthday, in return for guidance and protection or a little extra brain power. Not only individuals but also families, households, the Senate, cities, provinces, and entire empires could have such protective supernatural Allies.
The play and movie Harvey show a man who relies on an imaginary friend, a kind of psychic Ally who helps him cope with reality. Woody Allen's character in Play It Again, Sam conjures up the spirit of Humphrey Bogart's movie persona to guide him through the subtleties of love. It's a Wonderful Life depicts a desperate man being helped by an angel Ally.
ANIMAL ALLIES
Animals as Allies are common in the history of storytelling. Goddesses especially are accompanied by animal Allies, like Athena and her companion owl, or Artemis and the deer who is often seen running at her side. The jester of European folktale, Till Eulenspiegel, was always associated with two symbols, an owl and a mirror. His name "Eulenspiegel" means "Owl-Mirror" and suggests that he is wise as an owl and that he holds up a mirror to the hypocrisy of society. The owl became Tills reluctant Ally in the animated film Till Eulenspiegel The heroes of Westerns are often supported by animal Allies like Roy Rogers' elegant steed Trigger and dog Bullet.
ALLIES FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE
Ancient folktales tell of Allies even among the dead. The name for the band "The Grateful Dead" had its origins in a folktale term for the dead who give aid to living people in gratitude for doing something to set their souls at rest, such as paying a debt to give them decent burial. The Helpful Ghost is the title of a romance novel by Sheila Rosalind Allen in which a ghost sorts out romantic matters in an old house.
HELPFUL SERVANTS
Another folktale Ally motif is the "helpful servant," a stock character in tales of romance who helps the hero achieve his or her goal by carrying love letters and messages or providing disguises, hideaways, escape routes, and alibis. D'Artagnans long-suffering valet Planchet is one of the helpful servants in The Three Musketeers and Dudley Moore's butler, played by stately John Gielgud, performs the role in Arthur. Batman's butler Alfred serves many roles and it should be noted that the Ally function can easily overlap with that of the Mentor, as Allies occasionally step up to the higher function of guiding the hero in spiritual or emotional matters.